okay. this, won't take long will it? no, not at all. how many of these can we do on our budget? more than you think. didn't take very long, did it? this spring, dig in and save. that's nice. post it. already did. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. dig in and save with vigoro one-quart annuals, four for just ten bucks. a good saturday afternoon to you, i'm craig mel vichblt you are watching msnbc, the place for politics, coming to you live from the nation's capital. congress did something they rarely do these days, vote for something. >> members of this house are going to run for the airports and they will pat themselves on the back and say job well done. >> now the faa has the funding it needs. meanwhile, other critical

program funded by the feds are left stuck on the tarmac. >> for the syrian government to utilize chemical weapons on its people crosses a line. >> president obama faces the heat from the hawks as evidence mounts of chemical weapon use inside syria. >> i gave it my best. i gave my best shot for america. and that's all you can do in life. >> and america takes another look at the 43rd president. we will give you an insiders a view of the george w. bush library dedication. first though, breaking news we need to bring you up to speed about here, the first from southern afghanistan where four american servicemen were killed in a plane crash today. the cause of that crash is still under investigation. however, initial reports do not indicate there was any sort of enemy activity in the area at the time of the crash. also, this other breaking story, an arrest has been made in tupelo, mississippi, in

connection with those letters containi ining ricin, the poiso made from castor beans that can be lethal. the letters were sent to president obama and also to congressman roger wicker. kristen welker is standing by live with the latest. crist reason, at this point what do we know about the suspect? >> reporter: well, we know that was a martial arts instructor and i can tell you, craig that fbi officials have confirmed that special agents arrested 41-year-old everett dut schduts his home in tune low, mississippi. we expect him to be arraigned monday. this arrest is in connection with the rhine-laden letters, one addressed to president obama, another addressed to senator wicker from mississippi. we shut should point out that the letters can a never came close to their intended targets, intercepted at an off-site mail

facility. according to our i'll yacht at tupelo, mississippi, officials were investigating the home earlier this week on two separate occasion. this comes after a tuesday incident in which prosecutors dropped charges against another mississippi man, an elvis impersonator named paul kevin curtis. so he has no longer been charged with this. he has claimed his innocence all along. we do know that these two men knew each other and now our affiliate actually spoke we have rhett dutschke this week. he proclaimed his innocence. >> i have nothing to do with those letters the person accused of sending those letters, her defense attorney or his defense attorney said -- steered them in my direction because i was probably an easy target. >> so again, when you hear him talk about his defense attorney, he is talking about paul curtis, the man who was originally thought to be behind these ricin-laced letters.

so, again craig, at this hour, no charges have been filed. we are still waiting to learn what he will be charged with, but local officials saying that there is a connection with these ricin-laced letter he s. >> any reaction yet from the white house? >> no reaction from the white house yet. still waiting on that but craig, of course, this comes against the backdrop of the boston bombings. those letters were intercepted just hours after the boston bombings so they really added to the heightened sense of anxiety and alertness here in the nation's capital. clearly something the white house officials have been monitoring quite closely as well as officials here and locally and mississippi. >> kristen welker at 1600 pennsylvania avenue. with me to talk about the rhine scare and the latest on boston as well, let's turn to joan walsh, msnbc political analyst, man knew raju, politico and ryan

bender, national security analyst at the "boston globe," good saturday to all of you. what kind of threat does this suspect pose in the ricin investigation? >> hard to tell how wide this conspiracy was. we don't know if he was actually the suspect. clearly, there are questions the fbi has a little bit of egg on its face, given that it arrested someone earlier. seems that person is not -- is not involved in this. >> the whole thing seems quite bizarre. you have got the elvis impersonator, the guy who has been arrested apparently is a rival of the elvis impersonator. all of this unfolding in mississippi. >> yeah. but you know, at the heart of it is a concern. i mean, ricin is a dangerous substance. this is a naturally occurring substance but a few grichbs it like a few grains of salt, will kill an adult human being. so, clearly, somebody sent these letters, and i think the fbi is

trying to figure out who, why and whether they have a case against this guy. >> you spent many of your days down the hill, how concerned are lawmakers about solving this case? >> not a lot of concern. not like the fear felt after the atlantic scares back in 2001. >> yeah. >> think people see this as an isolated incident, a rogue act or roger wicker, do you see the senator who was targeted walking around with security detail. he normally doesn't have security. his office is certainly concern about the threat to him. other members of congress see this playing out and happy so far. >> joe, let's pivot, turn to boston now the latest on the bombings, nbc news has now confirmed that the mother of the bombing suspect was actually placed on the cia's terror database, about the same time as

her eldest son, dzhokhar tsarnaev. she is now in chechnya with her husband. how large a reach do authorities have in contacting her at this point? >> interesting here, craig, part of the problem here seems to be a little bit of miscommunication in the past between the russian government and our government over the status of these young men, certainly tamerlan, now we know a little bit about the mom. and so to question her to get any more information, i think we are going to have to work very closely with them and really a test of a kind of a strained relationship and the more we learn, the more we see that perhaps there had been better coordination, perhaps had there been a little more trust, we would have been able to follow up in both directions on his travels there, travels there, what the plot was t all that will be testzed as which try to learn more about the mother. >> you, brian, spoke with a former federal official who concluded in part "preliminary

signs indicate law enforcement and intelligence agencies failed to properly scrutinize one of the boston marathon bombing suspects after he was added to a terror watch list by the cia a month after fbi investigators concluded he does not pose a threat." what does it seem like the cia or fbi might have missed here? >> well this is ambassador tom mcnamara, whose previous job was basically to ensure the government shares information on counterterrorism. in his reading of this, as well as others we have talked to, is that if they did follow the process and place these people in the right databases, treat them the right way and we don't know that for sure yet, even if they did do that, it is clear, seems pretty clear that the process itself isn't wire sod that particular individuals rise to the top, their significance level increases so that they do get another look. listen, the fbi investigated him in the spring, early summer of 2011, closed the case, said no

worries there. three months later, the cia puts them on a watch list but he has never followed up an guess even though he travels to dagestan, the department of homeland security niece, nobody goes to interview him as far as we can tell. so a year and a half went by he wasn't really monitored at all it raises a question, okay, you're in the kath base but if there's 750,000 people in there, there's no way to discern who's more important, who's less important, what good is it? >> how do investigators balance this extremely complex investigation with making sure that lawmakers, and the public, feel that they are being well informed as well? >> it's very difficult. what we have seen since 9/11 is federal investigators, intelligence community, very hesitant about giving information out that could compromise their investigation. and it's led to this constant

tension between the public, between members of congress and between the intelligence agencies. i think they are going to be very, very careful in deciding what pieces of information to dribble out. i think you will see more of that as we get closer to when the court proceedings actually begin to play out. >> joan, one of the members just mentioned, house intelligence member mike chair suggested this week the bombing suspect received his miranda rights too soon and might be sharing more with investigators if that did not happen. where is the argument what kind of civil rights he should be afforded? where does that stand? >> it looks like investigators used the public safety exception, questioned him quite a lot, given his lack of help about whether he had partners, whether there were other bombs, what their plan also been, who they worked with and they got

some answers. at a certain point they did mir ran dioce ran diocese him because they had to. he would be more credible if he wasn't trying to politicize sthooiz and not make it about the obama administration keeping it safe. i take everything with a grain of salt.

>> your book, "what's the mat we are white people" out now in paper back. i won't touch the title. >> it's mine. don't worry about t still to come here, shakespeare, courtesy of michele bachmann. sort of. we will break that down for you. also, could our path to energy independence be as simple as leasing a car? new industry is growing with the power of the sun. we will talk about that. it's our big idea. and breathing new life into the push for gun control legislation on capitol hill. connecticut senator richard blumenthal on the other side of this break. come back. hut! you up for the challenge suds-maker? i'm gonna need more than that to get through the rest of these dishes! i want more suds! dawn? you won't last. [ female announcer ] a drop of dawn has active suds that stay stronger longer, so you can clean 2x more greasy dishes. to get the job done. you're full of suds after all. now drop and give me twenty spaghetti bowls!

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hearing that the faa has suspended all employee

furloughs, the agency will return to regular staffing levels some time in the next 24 hours, we are told, but the finger pointing in washington is just getting started this morning. president obama accused congress of looking out forever their own interests as travelers, while underprivileged americans continue to suffer. >> this week, the sequester hurt travellers who were stuck for hours in airportsed on and on planes and rightly frustrated by it and maybe because they fly home each weekend, the members of congress who insisted on these cuts finally realize that they actually apply to them, too. >> this week, both chambers this congress passed a bashlgt break neck speed, we should note, that ended furloughs for air traffic controls. the president, we are told, is expected to sign it as early as monday. senator richard blumenthal supported ending furloughs for air traffic controllers. he joins me live now. good to see you. let's start with the president's criticism. what do you make of that, this idea that members of congress

were motivated, in part at least, motivated by the fact that they have to go home every weekend and most of them fly commercially? >> this effort actually, craig, began weeks ago when i offered an amendment with senator moran, republican of kansas, very bipartisan effort, tens of senators joined us in trying to stop the kinds of delays at the airport that have economic imp plic care cost and convenience, but also endanger economic recovery because they are essential to jobs, but the president is absolutely right that we need a broader solution to the sequester, which is an arbitrary slashing across-the-board cut affecting seniors who need meals on wheels, kids who need head start. >> why not focus on meals on wheels? why not focus on head start? >> my hope is that we will when

we come back. in fact, we did before we left town, the majority leader offered a comprehensive end to the sequester through the finish of this fiscal year that would use some of the money that is now set to be spent. it's budgeted. for years in the war in afghanistan when, in fact, we should have and will not have troops there. so, there is a budget mechanism to provide funds that will avoid those slashing across-the-board cuts affecting kids, seniors and other domestic needs along with military spending. and by the way, craig -- >> go ahead. >> there was also a solution offered back in february that would have raised revenue from a tax, the so-called buffet rule. >> people who watched this

unfold 42 hours, 74 hour, people were struck by the speed at which the senate acted, the speed which the house acted, two bodies that are known for a lot of things, but need not one of them typically. how was it lawmakers were able to move so quickly on an issue like this but not on other issues like gun control, for example? >> well, i wish, craig, as you know, i'm very strong advocate of gun violence, prevention measures and one of my biggest frustrations of the two years they've been in the united states senate, only two years, but still a huge frustration, has been the miscues ause and af the filibuster rule by the republican minority. here, republicans yielded, in affect and sought cost and inconvenience was creating a furor and the blowback from ordinary people as well as the business community and much broader segment of the public caused them to yield and to

enable the majority to work its will. and i think, i hope, that perhaps we can have similar bipartisan action on other measures. >> senator, how much of this was about the fact that people who sit on flights, those folks scream a lot louder than poor kids or a lot louder than lobbyists for the elderly? how much is really about that? >> the silent majority needs to be less silent, whether it's on gun violence or the sequester or other essential and important domestic needs. and i'm hoping that we can forge a bipartisan consensus as we did on this measure so that that other kind of majority is heard as well, not other kind of majority in the sense of a different america, but all of america. >> senator richard blumenthal from connecticut, my state. senator, good to see you. thank you so much. do appreciate you. >> thank you craig. >> i should note the state write live now. i have folks from south carolina e-mailing right now to remind me

where i'm from. when you are president, you get all kinds of gifts. mr. obama has brought home more than $41,000 worth. what he's received and where those gifts could very well end up. some of these are pretty bizarre. speaking of bizarre, mark sanford debating nancy pelosi, sort of. you have actually got to see this to believe t watching msnbc, the place for politics, even on a saturday afternoon. oh, boy. [ groans ] ♪ ♪

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knews rouse republicans voted against sequestration because we knew the cal lamb mets were in the future it reminds me of the shakespeare line, thou protests too much. >> not exactly that is michele bachmann kwoengt house floor, slamming her colleagues for voting for the sequester cuts in the first place. the lady from minnesota

misquoted the bard, the here it is the lady doth protest too much, methink also n fairness it is apparently one of the lines that's often misquoted. south carolina voters ready to pick thank you senor an election. mark sanford debated none other than nancy pell lows i is not exactly. sanford used, as you can see there, a cardboard cutout of the former speaker as a stand-in for his opponent, elizabeth colbert bush. san ford is a tad annoyed that she has agreed to debate him only once and claims that colbert bush is also avoiding public appearances. he says that he used the cutout because nancy pelosi is colbert bush's biggest benefactor. meanwhile, good news for mark sanford, who is trailing in polls. former presidential candidate ron paul has endorsed him,

saying sanford is a strong ally of the liberty movement. ever wonder who gives the coolest, strangest, most expensive gifts to our president? wonder no more. this week, the federal register has released a list of gifts received by president obama and the first lady in 2011, some of which may end up in his presidential library. here are just a few of them. most notable, the gifts from former french president, nicholas car cozy and his wife, carla bruney. the obamas, received from them, among other gifts, a large hermes golf bag, louis vuitton business beek, bath robes, beach towel, reusable grocery bag and also toiletry bag. the foreign swag is worth more than $41,000. strange political bedfellows meet he is the modern american

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we have got some breaking news we continue to follow today in mississippi. federal agent there is have made an arrest in the white house ricin case. fbi special agents took james everett dutchky into custody in mississippi. he's 41-year-old martial arts instructor. you remember that those letters laced with the poison were sent to president obama and also to two other government officials last week in the wake of the boston bombing and had this entire country on edge.

authorities arrested paul kevin curtis last week and dropped the charges. again, breaking news in mississippi. continue to update you on the story as we learn new information. a u.s. counterterrorism official tells nbc news that the cia put the mother on the list in the fall of 2011, the same time they were looking into her older son, tamerlan. yesterday, investigators searched a landfill in new bedford, massachusetts, for a laptop computer and other items belonging to the younger suspect, dzhokhar tsarnaev. new bedford, eight miles from the campus of the university of massachusetts dartmouth, where the suspect was a student. he was moved to a federal prison hospital early yesterday. 30 victims remain in the hospital. one of them remains in critical

condition. and for the first time, one of the bombing victims is sharing minutes credible story, jeff bauman, came face to face with tamerlan before the bombs went off. he lost both his legs but still able to give authorities description of the suspect. this is what he told a boston radio station. >> well, i was with my girlfriend's roommates and we were having a great time, you know? we were watching the runners. everyone was having a great time and just that one guy, you know? he didn't look like he was having a good time. so, he was right next to me, you know, at that point. and he had a bag. and he had his glasses. and he had kind of like a leather, like, sweatshirt type of deal. and you know, it's warm out. he was just an odd guy. he just struck me odd. and that's what i remember of him. and then next thing you know, he had fireworks and i'm on the

ground. >> jeff bauman there. he is now starting physical and occupational therapy. overseas to syria, rebels there attacked a big military base in the northwest region of the country, this as new reports indicate syria may have used the nerve gas, saran, in, on its ow people. and jay carney said that assad crossed the red line but president obama still wants absolute confirmation. >> knowing that potentially chemical weapons have been used inside of syria doesn't tell us when they were used, how they were used, obtaining confirmation and strong evidence. all of those things we have to make sure that we work on with the international community. >> the political quagmire that is syria, let's bring in the war room, richard goodstein, a

democratic strategist who worksed in the clinton white house, jay at watt kins, republican strategist and white house aide to george h. w. bush. >> good to see you, craig. >> he is a guy's guy. look at that seems to be general consensus, israel, france, great bring, a lot of experts, that syria, what in fact, used these chemical when importance richard. how worried should the white house be about the message could be sent if they are perceived any way, shape or form backtracking from their initial assertion if the red line is crossed, that is going to mean some type of action? >> i would say there are -- we are paying respect to george w. bush this week, but in all due respect, there are three ways in which his presidency i think are tieing this president's hands a little bit. one, the u.s. is tired of being in conflict. two, we saw that the claim of having weapons of mass destruction is something you need to nail down with 100% certainty, had what the iraq war was predicated on and, three,

budget deficits, don't really have quite the stomach tonight world's policemen that we may have had before. that said, the people who are most saying that the red line was crossed are the very people who see red lines everywhere and forever seeing them crossed in iraq and elsewhere. i think the president's being cool, cam and collected, making sure if they are going to do something, we have this nailed and the allies behind us. >> what say you to that joe kins, the folks screaming about the red line here, are they, in fact, the folks oftentimes, as richard put it and put it well, see red lines? >> for somebody like john mccain who has seen firsthand the horror of war and knows what it's like to be a prisoner of war around subjected to that kind of cruelty is not eager to see us rush into war. he has for the last two years been advocating that red line has been crossed, indeed, there are those weapons being used. he said if we had some kind of a military response, sort of putting troops on the ground,

that is, not intervening in that way in the syrian conflict but a way that would allow for people not to die by use of nerve gas. right now, you have got the syrian opposition dying from what appears to be the use of nerve gas by the syrian government. and if they had listened to senator mccain a couple years ago, maybe we wouldn't be at this point. he is just talking about a no-fly zone, about a safe place for the opposition to gather. he is talking about perhaps providing some weapons to those in the opposition we trust. those are all ways to help and to stop the killing without actually deploying u.s. troops. >> you wanted to jump in there? >> yeah. so, we saw in egypt, mubarak was the bad guy and we backed an opposition in some respects, now a muslim brotherhood, virulent anti-israel, we sea in libya. it was easy to say gadhafi was a bad guy and backed people.

now, the weapons we supplied to the people the elements of gadhafi we hear are finding their ways into countries were they are basically using them against our friends. look if we give anti-aircraft weapons if we give anti-tank weapons to these folks that we now think are better than the current regime, which is not saying much, into the very high bar, but if those are used againsts i real, think almost inevitable they would be, likely fall in the wrong hands, look back and say that may not have been the smartest thing to do without being sure there is no alternative. >> joe, that has been a concern expressed by a loft folks, we really don't know a whole lot about the rebels. i mean, we do know that some of the factions inside the rebel group have demonstrated that they are also inclined to perhaps be susceptible to radicalization. >> you raise a great point, craig. and you do as well, richard, which is to say that getting rid of the bad guy, getting rid of a strong man, doesn't necessarily

mean that the folks that replace them will be people that we like and trust. that's why senator mccain said in his piece we want to provide weapons to the opposition members that we trust, people that we know and can trust. >> we don't know who we can trust there, joe. >> clearly, we don't want a situation where the government is using nerve gas against its own people. not a good thing. >> switch gears here, come back domestic, i want to talk to you about -- senator blumenthal a few moments ago, richard, about the faa and about the speed at which congress acted, folks stuck on a run way, you know, i was stuck on a run way, i was 26th in line for departure to get to dca, took two hours to get here. when you start talking about the other folks in this country who are suffering as a result of the sequester, whether it's kids in head start, we talk about head

start, but lots of folks, the elderly folks feeling the real effects of the southwester we don't talk about a lot on cable news. all of a sudden, congress does this. is it that people who are on tarmacs scream louder than poor kids? >> they were making a lot of noise. not just poor kids there are meat inspectors. there are drug inspectors. this is not something these kind of -- i mean there are 750,000 people, as the president said in his speech, saturday's speech today, that will lose their jobs. we saw 2.5% growth only should have been higher for sequestration, people in europe think austerity may not be a particularly good economic plan and band-aids are not an economic policy. this was a band-aid for the faa. i guess the question what else is going to go wrong before they say let's do this in a holistic way, not the scattershot way. >> joe, do we think this is just the beginning of other piecemeal

attempts to fix the effects of the sequester? >> we are pretty broken right now, craig and richard. i agree it is very frustrating and sad to see the congress has the capacity to move quick loin some measures, measures that impact them and maybe not other measures that affect kids. i especially care about this in my life outside of television, i serve a great school district where there are wonderful people who don't have lots and lots of money and they are the first ones to suffer when you have a sequester like the one we have now. my hope is that, the hope of all americans, republicans and democrats can work together. the first thing you see on television is republicans and democrats blame each other for whatever isn't working. republicans and democrats need to put aside some of our difference and figure out a way to work together to get things done for the sake of the country. i don't know what you think, i think that's what has to happen. republicans and democrats have to work together. >> it's always nice when we can end the war room on a conciliatory tone. >> hallelujah. >> we should play some music or

something. richard goodstein, joe watkins, always good to have both of you. thank you so much. straight ahead, a bright idea is our big idea on this saturday. could this be a more affordable way for you to bring sustainable energy into your home? then, a little bit later, the night when washington gets all dolled up and -- see, i don't think i've ever seen her at the different, richard goodstein. was she there? nerd prom tonight. >> dick cheney is supposed to be here but he is very busy working on his memoirs, tentatively titled how to shoot friends and interrogate people. [ male announcer ] this is bob, a regular guy with an irregular heartbeat. the usual, bob? not today. [ male announcer ] bob has afib: atrial fibrillation not caused by a heart valve problem, a condition that puts him at greater risk for a stroke.

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solar panels and the idea of turning the sun's energy into electricity you certainly not anything new, but solar panel, never been more affordable and widespread as well, thanks to leasing program. and some say it could even help the united states achieve energy independence. one organization leading the way in this field, a group called sun jeffity. bring in danny kennedy, president of sun jeffity and author of rooftop revolution. and andrew but as much here, ceo of sun jeffity. thank you for being with me on a saturday afternoon. >> thank you, we appreciate the invite. >> we noticed the proliferation of solar panels on the top of libraries, schools, malls, parking lots, catching consumers, too. how does sungevity help make solar panels more affordable? >> we lease the solar panels, so whereas you used to have to buy them up front, you now get to pay as you go for the service of

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customers get the benefit of knowing they are generating their own power, clean, positive energy directly from their own roof, something that makes them feel very good p >> sungevity, you guys had a pretty interesting campaign a few years ago, called globe bam marks wanted to put solar panels on the white house. not just that, you were following donate them, i understand. the white house said they would go solar in 2010, that hasn't happened yet. but for president obama's second inauguration you made a video for him. i want to share a snippet of it with our viewers. take a look. take a listen. >> power it up. with all-american, economy-boosting, job-creating sunshine. congratulations on another four years, mr. president. your dog, beau, is loving the lifestyle. >> beau, obama, that wasn't him was it? >> we found a lookalike dog, you're true. you're right, the president said woe go solar, secretary chu,

then department energy secretary, said he would put sole loornt white house, we want to encourage the president to do that give it to him like no money down, like every other american can get a solar lease and save money for the tax payer on their electricity cost. we hope the president refreshes his i quote at sungevity.com and like other consumers watch fgt show, go to the website and get a quote for yourself as well to save money on electricity. >> end it with your plug. danny kennedy, president of sungevity, andrew birch, ceo of sungevity. thanks to both of you. thanks for being our big idea. >> appreciate it. thank you very much. up next, what brought all five living american presidents together? an inside look at some of the more infamous personalities who participated. [ female announcer ] switch to swiffer 360 duster extender,

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whatever challenges come before us, i will always believe our nation's best days lie

ahead. god bless. it was an emotional and historic day in dallas thursday when all five living presidents, past and present, gathered in dallas for the opening of the george w. bush presidential center. so, what was it like to be there? pete seen is a former bush staffer who attended the openings, also the current communications director for the indiana public party. what was the most powerful moment of the ceremony for you >> the clip you just showed, there was no dry eye in the house, so to speak, seeing the president get emotional talking about the country he loves, we all love. the moment that will stick with me was when his father, george h. w. bush, stood up out of his wheelchair to acknowledge the standing ovation he got. he's national treasure around someone that we all revere very much. >> i understand you had some

interesting characters running check and also some fun with tags down there. what was that about? >> we had the executive office of the president reunion event wednesday evening when a lot of us got to dallas and, you know, walking up, there were two check-in tables that were staffed by former chief of staffs andy card and josh bolton, karl rove, harriet meyers, former supreme court nominee, were all handling check-ins a little bit of a turning of the tables. you know, odd former attorney general, michael mukasey, was wearing a name tag that said michael mukasey, ag. we all know. >> we know who you are. >> yeah. >> you were also one of the few people in the room the last time that all five presidents were together for that famous oval office photo when president obama was elected d. did you notice a demeanor of the five of them then and watching

the five of them now? >> a very exclusive club and only those five individuals truly understand what it's like to be president, what it's like to sit at the resolute deck and have these difficult decision land on the desk that you have to make. you can tell that they all, for the most part, i think get along very, very well, being in the oval office, one of my most pressured photographs from my tenure at the white house, is a picture of myself working that event in the oval office and they are all standing behind me, laughing and smiling and having good conversation. >> abc news and the "washington post," they put out this new poll on president bush's legacy. and according to their numbers here, the president xliii's approval rating climbed 14 points i in the last four years. we should note, obviously, when he left office, it was pretty doggone low but bounced back somewhat significantly, all things considered. what do you think's behind this?

>> i think people are looking back at the bush president circumstance the passable of time, in a different context, seeing how the decisions he made affect us today, leading to positive reforms today. his tax cuts, bipartisan tax cuts of 2001, 2003, led to over four years of positive job growth, i believe 52 consecutive months, the longest stretch in history. of course, the way he reacted following 9/11, keeping us safe for over seven years. and you know, i think the biggest thing, too, is the fact that president bush has stayed out of the limelight, isn't running around trying to defend himself, i think he told "usa today," i don't need to defend myself. history will render the final judgment on his tenure and i think this is the best way to do it, is let the public digest it all, reflect and let historians make the final case. >> do you think maybe it was the last point that was perhaps the most salient, the most salient reason that his numbers have

climbed, the fact that he hasn't been out there a great deal and we really don't see and hear a whole lot from him? >> well, i think it's -- it is consistent with what he said from the beginning is he just wanted to go back to texas and lead a normal, as normal of a life as an ex-president can lead, i guess, but lead a normal life out of the limelight and really just let history be the judge a big part of what the george w. bush presidential center is, is allowing people to come and see the decision and actually make them in an interactive exhibit, make the decisions themselves that he had to make regarding the iraq war, the economy, hurricane katrina and others. >> pete seat, we will leave it there i wouldn't get into it over some of the stuff you said about the legacy because we wanted to have you on to talk about the library. good to see you. thank you for your time. up next, folks, we will continue to follow that breaking

news on the arrest in the ricin case today. plus, how the tragedy in boston could impact the push for co comprehensive immigration reform in congress. mr. president, you remember -- you remember went country ral around you in the hopes of batter tomorrow? that was hilarious. that was the best one yet. i should be arrested for crimes against potted plant kind. [ clang ] my house is where plants came to die. but, it turns out all i was missing was miracle-gro potting mix. it's got what a plant needs like miracle-gro plant food that feeds them for up to six months. you get bigger, healthier plants, guaranteed.

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that your mouth is under attack, from food particles and bacteria. try fixodent. it helps create a food seal defense for a clean mouth and kills bacteria for fresh breath. ♪ fixodent, and forget it. good saturday to you, i'm craig melvin. you are watching msnbc, the place for politics, coming to you live from the nation's capital where the push for immigration reform is getting pushed back after boston. >> i say that particularly those

who are pointing to wharngd the terrible tragedy in boston as a i would say excuse for not doing a bill -- >> we have a broken immigration system and if anything, what we see in boston is that we have to fix and modernize our system. >> could it bring 11 million people closer to the american dream? i'm absolutely delighted to be here. >> attending these dinners for years. >> don't turn on me. >> you like me. you really like me. >> people forget about that one. >> it's too that time of year

again when d.c.'s political lines, laugh lines, meet the st starlets of hollywood. breaking news from mississippi, has to do with the ricin-laced letters sent to president obama and roger wicker. a man has been arrested in the ricin letters case, charged with trying to use biological weapons. kristen welker joins live. what can you tell butts mus abo man charged? >> reporter: u.s. attorney's office in mississippi sent out a release. i will read you the very latest we know about this case. we knee 41-year-old james everett dutschke of tupelo, mississippi, was arrested, faces charges with knowingly developing, producing, stockpiling, transferring, acquiring, retaining and possessing a biological agent toxin and delivery system for use as a weapon, in this case,

ricin. according to this release, craig, if convicted, he faces life in prison and $250,000 fine. we expect him to be arraigned on monday. give you a little bit of background about who mr. c dutschke is. he is a martial arts instructor in tune low, mississippi. he has a connection to someone wrongly charged week, a man named paul kevin curtis, an elvis impersonator, the two apparently rivals that elvis impersonator was charged and then prosecutors dropped those charges on tuesday. now, local officials say that the home of dutschke has been searched on monday and tuesday of this week. during that search, reporters had a chance to talk to him. he said he had nothing to do with those ricin-laced letters that were sent to president obama and to members of congress. he said he was being framed, eventual

essentially, by the first person arrested. here is what he had to say. >> i have nothing to do with those letters the person accused of sending those letters, her defense attorney or his defense attorney said -- steered them in my direction because i was probably an easy target. >> reporter: now we do know that dutschke is known to authorities, the mugshot we are showing you, craig is from a prior arrest. if convicted, he faces life in prison. these are very serious charges. white house officials tell me that president obama has been made aware of this arrest. at this point, they are not releasing any other reaction. this all started in the dates after the boston bombing. that is when these ricin-laced letters were intercepted at an offsite mail facility. so they never got close to president obama or to members of congress. obviously added to the tension here in the nation's capital.

>> quickly, before you let you get out of here, elvis imperson negotiate, sounds like the beginnings of a farrelly brothers' movie plot. what is that about? >> the rivalry seems to be long and complicated and involves a number of different sort of fights between the two men. i can tell you in one instance, the elvis impersonator, paul kevin curtis, claimed to be a part of -- a society called mensa society, basically for people who have high iq scores. well, dutschke took exception too that. -- exception to that. he called curtis out on that, said you are not being truthful about this . so, that is one of the fights the two had. hard to pinpoint where their disagree respect started.

craig? >> have to leave it there kristen welker from the white house. we want to bring folks up to day on the very latest from boston as well. this is what we know right now in terms of the investigation. nbc news has confirmed that the mother of the suspects in the boston bombings was actually placed on the cia's terror watch list herself back in 2011 at around the same time her elder son was placed on that list. the "boston herald" reporting congressman mike rogers, a michigan republican, chairs the house committee on intelligence, believes that there will be more arrests in connection with the bombings. rogers says there are clearly more persons of interest that authorities are looking at. the boat that captivated all of america last friday night at the end of last week's manhunt has been removed by authorities. the younger suspect, he hid in that boat until his capture last friday. in light of the boston bombing investigation are discussion of immigration reform has been delayed here in d.c.

the suspects' chechen origins further back up the process? "washington post" white house reporter david nakamura, lynn sweet, washington bureau chief for the chicago sun times are both with me in the flesh, this is a rare treat. thank you both for being with me on a saturday afternoon. david, i want to start with you. this week, kentucky senator rand paul wrote this letter to senate majority leader harry reid, said, in part, we should not proceed until we understand the specific failures of our immigration system. why did the current system allow two individuals to immigrate to the united states from the chechen republic in russia, an area known as a hot bed of islamic extremism, who then committed acts of violence? >> what is going on here is that for this immigration bill, the proponents want to move quickly. in 2007, immigration proponents

tried to get a bill through congress, it slowed down. that is what they are worried about this time. those that support this want to move as quickly as next month to get it to the senate floor and move forward. the problem is now those that sort of -- are in opposition to this bill have long been in opposition a path to citizenship in some of the key components now using this boston bombing as a -- a way to sort of block moving forward and they are saying, you know, we need to make sure that border security is tighter, know who these people are before they move forward. this is a political problem now for the people supporting it. >> lynn, paul's letter not totally accurate, the bombing suspects were from dagestan, not chechnya. regardless, how does congress deal with immigrants from countries that they deem is dangerous? >> well, this one is an easy answer because these bombers, accused bombers, one now dead, came as young people. one was 9, the other was a teen. so, that's not the question here. if the people who are basically

using this horrible tragedy to try to stop the immigration bill, as david said, were people that were opponents anyway. and they are just -- they think they have leverage. here's why they don't, i can say this quickly, the republicans still have the underlying political problem coming up in the 2014 elections of fixing you the problem with hispanic voters, what could happen in the bill, sure i will be reporting it, the sponsors in the house and the senate, bipartisan coalitions will say you tell us? you toughen up the security and we will do it. >> you wrote something else this week that caught our eye, david in regard to republicans trying to slow down the process, not necessarily kill it but slow it down, perhaps even pass some major parts of the legislation, part by part.

>> the problem with the time is it gets the critics time to say the wrong kind of things very offensive to the group of voters that the gop is trying to expand their appeal to >> one way the house may solve this is to have several bills break this apart. senate is trying to work in a package, unusual that into these contentious times. didn't happen with guns. house works piecemeal, senate as a whole. they will have to do this in reconciling their versions. >> lynn, david, thanks.

you guys both look very nice. >> i have to go home and clean up for the dinner tonight. >> you can go like that >> i need the little black dress. new explosions -- excuse me, questions on the explosion in west texas. how and why, who perhaps is to blame. we will have that for you, straight ahead. [ phil ] when you have joint pain and stiffness... accomplishing even little things can become major victories. i'm phil mickelson, pro golfer. when i was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis, my rheumatologist prescribed enbrel for my pain and stiffness, and to help stop joint damage. [ male announcer ] enbrel may lower your ability to fight infections. serious, sometimes fatal events

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fine without goldman sachs. that's kind of the bottom line of 700 pages, if you really want to -- >> i really wish you had put that in the beginning. >> former economic adviser to president reagan, david stockman, has a lengthy new book out, a tour de force denouncing american capitalism and laying out how the road -- road to how our economy got into its current fragile state. the book is called "the great deformation" and reagan has nothing to do with it. i should note that i had the book as a prop but i couldn't get it in my bag. >> don't lift it. >> yeah. yeah. certainly not by yourself. before we get to the book really quickly here, i do want to talk to you about the numbers that came out yesterday, the u.s. economy grew 2.5% in the first quarter this year, some economists said they spengtsded 3%. what can we make of the economic numbers? >> i think one quarter doesn't mean anything but it's symptomatic that our economy's been failing for the last 13

years. if we average it out, economic growth has been only 1.7% for 13 years running now. the lowest rate of growth since probably the civil war. and so therefore, we have a huge problem, we need to ask how we got here and why the mainstream economy is failing. my book addresses that. i say it started a long time ago but it got exacerbated by the reagan deficits which weren't intended but they were massive. we tripled the national debt in the 1980s, then greenspan came along in the '90s and tried ameliorate the problem, massive expansion of the fed's balance sheet that created a boom in the stock market and the bust of dot com. we had that in 2000 to '01. greenspan panicked, pushed the interest rate down to 1%, which really really kind of lunatic, caused the housing bubble, that collapsed millions of families were hurt by that. bernanke then tried to double

down, we finally got the lehman collapse, bailouts of wall street and 208 that weren't necessary, and now back doing the same thing for the same time and it's only helping the speculators, it is not caution the economy to grow. it is not causing jobs to be created and that's kind of the essence of where we are at the present time. what's the way out you what are the solution? >> one thing is for both parties to recognize that this crazy policy of zero interest rates and massive money printing and buying huge amounts of debt at the fed is harming main street it is crushing savers and fixed income people and it's allowing the 1%, the small group of speculators who dominate the hedge funds in wall street to make huge wind falls and laugh all the way to the bank. the first step is getting fed under control. the second step is getting money purged out of politics and

washington because i say washington today is dominated by what i call crony capitalism. how do we do that? i think we need a constitutional amendment. i think we need to extend the terms to six years prohibit people from running from re-election. take private money out of campaigns entirely. and clean up our system. >> here is the thing, talk about political feasibility, you and i both know the first two aforementioned, those things aren't going to happen. the third thing that you mentioned, taking money out of politics, that's probably not going to happen either. >> that's the problem because we are now so locked into an embrace with this throwny capitalism, wall street-oriented effort to prop up the economy with the huge deficits that do not really go to the means test and safety net and poor people, they go to everybody else one way or another who have their hands in the till in washington. so all of this is taking the

economy in an increasingly negative direction and somehow, if this trend isn't stopped, i can't imagine that it will do anything but get worse. i agree, we are in a dilemma, we need radical reform, we need to rethink what we have been doing for 10, 20, 30 years and until we have a huge crisis, another one like 208, probably worse, i doubt whether any of that's going to happen. i agree with you, it is not realistic, but also, the current trend, the current approach is utterly unsustainable. >> thank you for your time, sir. >> thank you. developing news in mississippi today, the word of the arrest the recent ricin-laced letter sent to the president and members of congress, straight ahead. the job market looking pretty bleak to the college bass klaas of 2013 so we will introduce to you a high school where students are working on the cutting edge and getting

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yesterday, president obama confirmed intelligence reports saying chemical weapons had been found in syria. his next move remains unknown. >> for the syrian government to utilize chemical weapons on its people crosses a line. that will change my calculus and how the united states approaches these issues. >> former pennsylvania congressman patrick murphy joins me now he, of course is an iraq war veteran and msnbc contributor. good see you, sir. the president said his use of chemical weapons is a red line for the united states. what does that mean that we can expect to see happen next? >> what this means is this is a big deal, craig, the first time chemical weapons have been used

in 30 year, the last time was saddam hussein against his own people. now this means it should be international uproar, make sure the u.n. security council is engaged, specifically you craig, china and russia, russia said if the syrians use chemical weapons, that's big deal. the intelligence reports from three countries show that, now time for russia and china to act so we can do this internationalism the united states, craig, we cannot continue to be the sole policemen of the world and the bank of the world. >> what are our options? what are our options in sir yand what's the likelihood of a prolonged conflict, should we get involved? >> well, we don't -- first, the worst case scenario, we don't want to have boots on the ground there's been 70,000 people killed the last two years, don't want to engage in the middle of a civil war with its own country. john mccain and lindsey graham and others, as you know, have said let's give arms let's give arms, let's give arms.

the problem there is on one side, you have this assad regime, which is not our friend. then on the other hand, you have the rebel forces which are supported by al qaeda, about 6,000 al qaeda member he is. and that's who they want to give arms to. that's wrong. so, what i would like to see is the u.n. security council come together, potentially some targeted strikes an international force on the depots of chemical weapons that they have. most importantly, craig, make sure there's allies to for jordan. 1.3 million syrians that have left the country and in jordan and lebanon. we need to make sure we provide humanitarian assistance because they are bursting at the seams. >> former congressman patrick murphy have to leave it there this time. love you back and continue the conversation. always appreciate your perspective. >> thanks, craig. still to come, the day that the world saw bravery in a single act on the streets of tiananmen square. first though -- >> okay. here it comes.

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got some breaking news now in mississippi, federal agents arrested and charged a suspect in the case of the ricin letter laid, sent to the white house and capitol hill. fbi agents took james everett dutschke into custody this morning, charging him with attempting to use a biological weapon f convicted, he could face life in prison. we are following that breaking news story for you on this saturday afternoon. we also continue to follow the very latest on the boston bombing investigation.

new details afternoon about the family of the suspects. this morning, nbc news confirmed that tamerlan tsarnaev's mother was placed on the watch list in dwell about the same time he was. meanwhile, in boston, investigators been searching and sifting through a landfill in new bedford with the suspect went to college. michelle franzen is standing by live for must boston with the latest on the investigation. what can you tell us? what are you hearing about the mother? why was she on the terror watch list? >> reporter: we are learning new details, craig that u.s. counterterrorism officials are confirming, telling nbc news that russian intelligence had passed along information to the cia back a few years back and said that they had given them information that tamerlan and his mother were becoming, in their words, more radicalized and as a result, u.s. officials

added tam letter lan and his mother, confirmed to nbc news they added them to the watch list known as tide, a database of about 700,000 names in that. and o course, we have heard from tsarnaev's family this week, his mother adamantly denying any of the accusations that she has been accused of this week. >> what were the investigators looking for in that landfill, any idea? >> back here in boston, the investigation still very fluid on many levels yesterday. several dozen people, investigators now the a landfill area searching for what officials tell nbc news could be a laptop from dzhokhar tsarnaev, that he may have dumped, as well as possible receipts from fireworks purchases that may have been used to create that bomb. they are sifting through that area to find more evidence,

including in and around the places yes lived, of course, up and down this area around boylston street everything else getting back to normal this weekend. >> michelle franzen from boston. thank you. back here in washington, d.c., the press covering washington is throwing itself a big party tonight. actually, a lot of big parties. the party's already started with many folks in the media attending preparties. right now, they are pregaming for their prom, 12 hours before the white house correspondents dinner. if last year is any bloom, expecting another star-studded evening. the president notice it had last year, before he started his speech. >> seriously, guys what aim doing here? i'm the president of the united states and i'm opening for jimmy kimle? >> i have the nuclear codes, why am i telling knock knock jokes to kim kardashian? why is she famous anyway?

>> by the way, not 12 hour, starts at 7:00, not 12 hours away, maybe the pregaming is justified. also conan o'brien's second appearance at the so-called nerd prom. here he was touring the white house press office yesterday. his first one, back in 1995. that was right after the oklahoma city bombings. this time, of course, it's after the explosions in boston. dana milbank, political columnist "washington post," alicia quarrels, red carp brett coverage for e entertainment network and dean owe bid dal la, comedian, opinion writer, all-around nice guy. >> thanks. >> good to have all of you with us. dana, let start with you. talk about the tone the president is probably going to have to take and conan o'brien as well, ricin-laced letters, still on the heels of the boston bombing, investigation under way. how might it affect president obama's tone? will it? >> we have had this before and worse, of course, because we

have been terrorist attacks. i think they will yuck it up, do the jokes ribbon written for the president and then have a solemn moment at the end when we all feel good as americans and we think about what really matters in the world and that is who's going to the msnbc afterparty. >> i'm not touching that. let's listen -- this is president bush, dean. take a listen, president bush right after the virginia tech shooting in 2007. >> in light of this week's tragedy at virginia tech, i decided not to be funny. many of the men and women in this room have spent this week reporting from blacksburg, virginia. >> and he really struck a different tone that year, dean. how can the president -- how can he be both funny and respectful? >> i think actually, if you look

at 1995, bill clinton actually did a great job of that, and that was after the oklahoma city bombing. he actually opened with a few jokes, then made a touching, inspirational talk. there is time for mourn bug healing through comedy. two weeks later. you can do it respectfully. we must acknowledge boston. >> my colleague, tom brokaw, has poked a lot of fun about t so has dana milbank. it's become quite the star-studded event. >> you know what, d.c. needs some star quality here outside of the politicians. listen, all year, we listen to the politicians, we listen to the rhetoric, as citizens shall and journalists, sometimes okay to bring in the hollywood stars, barbra streisand coming in year, one of the first stairs tend the dinner in 1993 for clinton. comes full circle, again this year. star stud bud shouldn't be criticized. it brings eyeballs to d.c. >> in the interest of full

disclosure here at msnbc, at our table, we will have rg3. the redskins quarterback. we are all big fans of rg3, again in the interest of full disclosure, have him, bradley cooper, minnesota senator al franken is going to be there former "snl" cast member. that is our team. you messaged barbra streisand. kevin spacey, kate morrow from "house of cards". who else? >> psy. gangnam -- >> he is still big? 15 minutes isn't up yet? >> the biggest, a new video even more viral than the first. jon bon jovi is going to be there i think the criticism came because last year, lindsay lohan came and people had a big problem with that. >> just see her? people -- >> i interviewed her. but the problem -- it is what it is. it got attention. everybody was talking about the white house correspondents' dinner. the point is you're raising money, it gives out scholarships. all year, deal with d.c., bring glamour. let's loosen up a bit. >> the other side of this, my

colleague, tom brokaw, talking to politico about the dinner. take a listen. >> there was more dignity at my daughter's junior prom than there is what i'm seeing on c-span here. then we got to the point where everyone had to bring in whatever page 6 celebrity happened to be around. for me, the breaking point was lindsay lohan. she became a big star at the white house correspondents' dinner. give me a break. >> what i find most interesting about mr. brokaw's assessment isn't that it's gone to the celebrity dogs, so to speak, instead of bringing all a-listers, d.c. bring nuts c and d-list celebrities. what do you make of his point, dana milbank? >> i agree with the point. i understand with what alicia is saying, nothing wrong with having hollywood come to washington it is often said that washington is hollywood for ugly people. here is a time when we actually get hollywood here in town. what i have is more of the problem with is the journalists are putting on this show and they -- basically, they are

fetting the powerful, they have politicians in to schmooze and mix it up with them. i don't think that should you can our row. i have no problem with hollywood coming to town and that can be exciting to people. i just would rather the journalists not be making themselves the story. >> i agree r i know you got move on, final thing is a lot of these hollywood stars are actually politically active. here during the inauguration, active all year. so for ever -- eva longoria. >> some are -- >> honey boo boo? where is honey boo boo? >> what did you say, dean? >> where is honey boo boo in the star i wanted to seem the "duck dynasty" people are going to be there. not far from honey boo boo showing up. >> "duck dynasty" is coming. >> i didn't know that. >> i would go for that. >> a moment of levity for the country. so what. mix it up with politicians. loosen up, everybody. >> dean, quickly, before let you

get out of here, you have written about president obama using jokes as a weapon of sorts. explain that >> sure, in the past, most presidents use comedy in a self-deprecating manner, can't lose, make people laugh at you, shows you are a sense of humor and secure. president obama has gone further. i looked at the past white house correspondents' din and used it to educate people, entertain and eviscerate, used it on trump in 2011, three jokes about trump. made fun about matt damon, an actor, had the audacity to mark president obama a short time before that last year, did it with mitt romney saying he is rich. all these are subtle jokes, there's a message embedded in those jokes, what political comedy is, make you laugh but also, setting a narrative up that you want to further through comedy. that's what president obama does like a comedian. he is amazing at that. >> dana milbank, alicia quarrels, dean obeidallah. i should note that dean and alicia, you guys will be joining me for msnbc's coverage of the white house correspondents' different 9 until 11:00. we will have the president,

conan o'brien, it should be a high time, put on the tuxedos as well. dana milbank was not invited because's sourpuss. we are gonna get a new look at where the nation's unemployment rate stands. wednesday, get new payroll numbers from paycheck from adp. on friday, the latest unemployment report from the labor department. although the unemployment rate has dropped, youth unemployment is still very high in this country. right now the unemployment rate for people under the able of 25 is 16.2%. that's about double the national average. but there's a new program in massachusetts that's helping young people find well-paying jobs and at the same time, reviving an old industry. the good news for many is you don't have to have a college degree to get hired. warner adams remember what is some of his buddies said when he decided no to the go to a traditional high school.

>> they thought it was a stupid choice. they make fun of vocational schools. now they are thinking i wish i went there >> when the 16-year-old graduates next year, he will make around $45,000. right now in massachusetts, that's the average starting salary in manufacturing. >> i can make as much money as like someone going to college, coming straight out of high school and i don't have to pay for college loans or anything like that. no wood working or table saws here that dusty shop class from a bygone era has turned into a high-tech training ground churning out well-paid workers. >> walk me through what i'm doing here? >> fly cutting the part, makes a nice, clean finish on t. >> reporter: as part of massachusetts's new amp it up program, students use state-of-the-art machines, computers, even robots to learn,code, program and design. >> it's better than sitting in a classroom to me. >> reporter: pathfinder regional vocational school has become wildly popular. >> there is a waiting list for the shop right now for kids that want to get into t.

>> reporter: mary jane rickson says her students have little trouble once they are out. in 2011, every pathfinder graduate landed a job in their field. >> the machine shops are clamoring for people right now. they can't ex-spand because they don't have any highly skilled people. >> reporter: demand is only going to increase over the next decade. massachusetts expects 100,000 new advanced manufacturing jobs, the most growth of any sector. many of the new jobs will be in biotechnology and involve creating medical components. >> the question is how do we make sure that the opportunity is there to get the skills levels across the need in our economy? >> reporter: governor deval patrick's answer involves changing perceptions. >> college is right for many but not everybody. >> i can break down a machine and set up a brand new job. >> did you think about college? >> i did when i was younger. i knew from a very early able i didn't want to do it. it's not for me. >> reporter: but michael rhodes says he loves his job at mirox corporation not only because he

is just 19 and can afford his new car and save for a house, there's something else. >> is easily the hardest thing i have done in my life. >> reporter: on the floor and back in the 21st century classroom, part of the draw for manufacturing's newest faces is they won't be working in their grandfather's factory. >> my father was working on assembly line, assembling things, doing the same thing, repetitive motion, but it's not. >> officials are rolling out the program nationally because it has become very popular and manufacturing employers are desperate to fill lots of open jobs in this country. the kids in the program at pathfinder vocational, they made a little game as well. we don't have it with us today, but trust me, it was really cool. when we come back, we will go to one of the most unreported stories this year, west texas and talk about what may have caused the blast that killed 14 first, back from the ashes, a look back at the day freedom tower started to rise over lower manhattan this is msnbc, the

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construction starts today on the freedom tower, the highly symbolic skyscraper in lower manhattan. >> construction started on 1904-story high freedom tower seven years ago today. it was created to memorialize and rebuild following the september 11th attacks on the world trade center complex. when the freedom tower is finished later this year it will be the tallest building in the western hemisphere at 1,776 feet. let's flashback to this day in 1989 when students about in beijing, china, took to the streets to fight oppression and commemorate their leader's death. listen to how nbc reported that night. >> the students spent all day defying the chinese government.

authorities had warped that any more demonstrations of this sort would be dealt with severely. this was the students' response. they poured onto the streets this more than 30 campuses, calling for slogans of greater freedoms, an end to corruption and economic reforms. police, accustomed to having their orders followed, didn't know what to do. there were too few of them and too many of the students. eventually, the crowd swelled to an estimated 150,000 people, all headed for tiananmen square. troops in army trucks made a vain attempt at blocking the entrances to the square but they could not contain the mass of people. by night fall, the students were heading back to the universities elated. they had defied the government's orders around the government had done nothing to retaliate. >> chinese officials agreed to meet with the student leaders following that day of protest, but after little change, the protests continued and some

students even turned to hunger strikes. everything eventually boiled over june 4, 1989. that's when troops received an order from chinese leaders to reclaim the square at all costs. several hundred to thousands of protesters were killed but that death toll is still contested, especially by the chinese government to this day. president obama attended a memorial this week for the victims of the west texas plant explosion, but some critics say he missed an opportunity there to help make sure another tragedy like this does not happen in the future. more on that next. flying is old hat for business travelers. the act of soaring across an ocean in a three-hundred-ton rocket doesn't raise as much as an eyebrow for these veterans of the sky.

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that was the scene in the small town of west, texas, april 17th. a fire and subsequent blast killed 14 and destroyed or damaged nearly 16 homes in the town. many of the dead were first

responders who were called to the fire at the west fertilizer company plant. the tragedy of west, texas was all but lost in the shout of the boston marathon bombing of that week. but on thursday president obama visited west and he had these words of comfort for those who lost loved ones. to the families, neighbors grappling with unbearable los, we are here to say you are not alone. we may not all live in texas, but we're neighbors too. we're americans too. >> mike elk is the labor report r fer in these times magazine. i'm glad you could join me for a few minute today. for follows who have not been following the story as close as you, how did the fire turn so deadly? >> there was 1300 times the amount of aknown yum nitrate in

the plant. >> 1300 times. >> of what was legally aloud without being registered. if they had registered they would be required to put in safety implementations. the plant had no fire alarms or sprinklers and no blast walls. >> now was that allowed to happen at that plan and how was it allowed to go on for so long? well there's simply not a lot of oversite. there are serch different governmental agents tasked with checking on this plant but only two agencies are tapped with inspecting the plant for explosive risk. department of security had no idea there was this amount of aknown yum nitrate in there. the last time the plant was expected by osha was 1985 to give you an idea of how week the regulation is here. >> it's more startling when you

stop to think there are probably other plants like that in this country. >> there was a fire today at a chevron chemical plant. workplace accidents happen a lot. 4600 employees tie die on the job. 13 americans a day go to work and they just don't come home. >> president obama he was there some week and i made some remarks. you wrote in your column that the president made no mention of worker safety in his notes. they remain pesz misic that anything will get done. >> what is the potential -- >> there's not been a lot of media attention. specifically what media attention there has been hasn't been focused on the problems. there was a study put out by media matters showed over a three-day period there were 68

stories about the west, texas explosion, only three mentioned that there was illegal amounts of aknown yum nitrate. the coverage is not good. there's a handle of us working on it when it should be us auz journalists are taking zblon a ammonium nitrate, that's the same chemical that timothy mcva used as well. we do appreciate the incite and i've enjoyed your reporting on this issue. when we come back, as has syria crossed the line in this country against its own people and what does that actually mean when it comes to the american response. a hack attack that sent the stock market plunging this week. we're going to talk to an expert to talk about what can be done

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a gooed a afternoon to you. you're watching msnbc the place for politics. copping to you live today from the nation's capitol where a battle is brews other the red line. >> i think that that in many wras a line has been crossed. >> does that mean that the the president thinks it's time for action in syria? more on that straight ahead. plus. >> by hacking into twitter they managed to hack into the stock market and hack into our way of life. >> from twitter to banks to news organizations, american cyber security is under attack. what are we going to do? >> this is a band aid covering a massive wound to the economy. >> in congress, moving at breakneck speed, but would they have moved so fast if it did not have a such an impact on their

travel plans. two breaks story to tell you. the first, a tragic story from afghanistan, four american service members have been killed there today. they died in a plane crash in southern afghanistan. that crash is under investigation. at this point we're being told there was no enemy fire in the area. the other breaking news story back here in mississippi, it all has do with the ricin-laced letters sent to president obama and senator wicker. the man has been arrested and charged with attempting to use a biological weapon. kristen welker has been following this story for us. what do we know about the man who was arrested? >> reporter: we know he is a marshal arts instructor. they confirm that 41-year-old james dutschke has been arrested

today charged with a lot of things, acquiring, retaining and possessing a biological agent and delivery system for the use in this case ricin. according to the u.s. attorney, if convicted he could face life behind bars. these are very serious charges. investigators have had their eye on dutschke for a number of days now. we are told that his home was investigated on two separate days, tuesday and wednesday. local officials, as well as local reporters outside of his home, local reporters say that they spoke to him, our affiliate there and he said he was innocent, he didn't have anything to do with sending those letters. those letters by the way, craig, addressed to president obama and members of congress. they never raechd their intended targets. they were intercepted at an off site mail facility. federal investigators taking the case serious and president obama has been made of this arrest.

>> kristen welker from the white house for us. thank as well. jims kaf that is an msnbc analyst. jim, mr. dutschke told reporters on tuesday that he was being framed. we know that there was some sort of ongoing rivalry between him and the elvis impersonator who was charged earlier earlier in this week. what is going on here? you got three local people involved in this plot here. you've got a senator, a judge, you got mr. curtis who was released and now you have this fourth person, mr. dutschke charged. i would be sure that the agents in the u.s. attorney's office are going to be certain about their proof after gotten the first guy and had to release him. it looks like something out of a novel where dutschke holds true in the proof trying to frame curtis by sending the letters to

the senator, the junl, the one to the president may have been cover to make it look like it was from afar. >> let's pivot to boston here. we're hearing the fbi conducted a search on the landfill near dzhokhar's college. what more do we know about that? >> well you would be going into that landfill if you had some information specifically that their garbage container was taken there and you interview the garbage container. we try to get where he dumped it and then dig it ou. when bombers buy these things, they don't use the car, they use the duck data and a surve r server motor. if there's remote control cars in there, pyrotechnic wrapping from the fireworks, all sorts of wires and bomb making materials, that could all be in there.

could be a lot of evidence tying them back into the bombing. >> let's talk a little more about the bombs. we've learned a little bit more of the bombs which were allegedly made. instructions in the al kwied da link magazine called inspire. what does that tell you about the brotherings' skill and capabilities if they indeed made the bombs. >> as homemade bombs go, craig, remote control, that raes sort of the top of the haep. i mean there's not electric fusing, there's timers, there's various switches mechanisms, but these are remote control. that's presidenty much the top of the haep. now the bombs are effective, they're simple bombs but what's a little more complicated or sophisticated is the way it's triggered by remote control. it tells me they're very determined and there at least was some practice and possibly some training on how to put those together. al qaeda magazine would have

given them 80% how to do it but a little more might have lads on top, either practice or om instruction. >> thank you, sir, do appreciate your time and insight as always. to our other political head lines, nbc news confirmed that the mother of the boston bombings suspects was placed on the terry watch list back in 2007. lindsey graham talked about concerns with u.s. intelligence friday. take a listen. >> between benghazi and boston our systems are failing and we're going backwards. we need to understand that ben laden may be dead, with but the war against radical islam is very much alive, radical islam is on the march and when he need to up our game. >> the faa has suspend spended his employee fur employees which were brought on by the

sequester. they passed a bill to get airline controllers back to work. the president reacting in his weekly address. take a listen. >> i hope mj will find the same bipartisan cooperation to help the families still in the cross hairs of these cuts. members of congress may not feel the pain of the kids kicked off the head start or the americans expected to lose their jobs because of the cuts or the long term employed who will be further hurt by them but that pain is real. >> now that that the white house has confirmed report syria has used chemical weapons. president obama said the use of weapons would cross a line for him. take a listen to mike rogers. >> if you listen a red line for our allies anned a very say were wis it can't be an imaginary

line. it has to be a red line. >> how will the administration react to this. he's spent a fair amount of time in syria, he joins us here as well in washington, d.c. good to have both of you in the studio. mr. ambassador, what are the options available right now for this white house, for this president with regards to syria. >> i think there's two different kinds of options when you think about it. one is you line up your ducks in terms of the intelligence and when you do something that could be direct military in terms of either striking where you think the stockpiles are or even think about seizing it. i wouldn't expect that to be an early set of options. a different set of options would be you establish a red line in terms of changing the circumstances. the president said this would be a game changer. a game changer would be once you have satisfied yourself about what in fact we know, then you could begin to arm the

opposition. that crosses a threshold for us. we haven't been prepared to do that. it would demonstrate we establish a threshold and we crossed it because the syrian government established a behavior that was unacceptable. >> let's talk about what's happening in that country right now. we know that more than 60,000 have been killed. that's about all we know in terms of the rebel force and the opposition. what more, what more can you tell us about what's happening on the ground in the syria now. >> the humanitarian situation has worsened by the day. you're not only talking about an internal syrian conflict, u you have millions of people displaced across borders, international borders into turkey, jordan, lebanon, in some cases iraq as well. you have weapons being smuggled into the country, including some from iran to the regime.

it's become a international conflict. it has a humanitarian element to it beyond the scale of what people have expected to happen. you have a political situation that is now a stalemate. the opposition is fragmented. the government is weak end but they still have diplomatic report from countries like russia and china. >> i want to play a piece of sound from senator john mccain yesterday. he of course is calling for the white house to act without hesitation. let's play the sound and talk about it on the other side. >> the president of the united states said if they used chemical weapons that it could would be a game changer, it would cross a red line. i think it's pretty obvious that red line has been crossed. now i hope the administration will consider what we have been recommending for over two years of this blood letting and massacre. >> you've been to syria many times. what affect would more aggressive u.s. steps, what

effect would that have on the regime there on the assad government? the key here is does it affect assad or does it affect those in support. i think assad is beyond affecting at this age. he's made his bet, his decision. the question is can you aif he can those around him who would decide that maybe there's away out for them. the biggest challenge we face is that he has made this a kind of war survival for the alloys. the alloys respect 12% 0 f the population in syria. to text tent to can which you could break some of the key support for him, you might change the balance of power within the regime itself. this is something that is very much worth thinking about. i think as you said, there is stalemate. there's no question there is a stalemate. the real focus is what can you do to change that dynamic. we say where we are, this is a humanitarian disaster and a strategic disaster.

we may have between two and three million who are displaced on the inside and we are destabilizing all of the countries around it. have got to change this. >> the chemical weapon they're accused of using is sir rin gas. what do we know about the chemical weapon stockpiles. >> we know they are them and for the first time they acknowledged that they had them when several months ago they acknowledged that they had the weapons and would use them. what we don't know is whether or not they have been mobilized to the front lines of the conflict. ant at one point they were secured. there was a lot of pressure to see cure the some piles. but what we don't know about the two incident that were referred to in the intelligence assessment was whether or not this was ordered by damascus. was this a chain of command from the front down to the top line units to begin using chill call

weapons or was it a renegade unit that had their hands on an ar till ray shell and were able to fire. these answers will be central. i think that's the point president obama made yesterday at the white house. >> i wish we had more time. good to have both of you in the flesh. this is so rare. usually you guys are in boxes so it's good to be able to reach out an touch you. thanks so much for being here on a saturday afternoon. the living social website is the latest victim of hackers and it comes off another attack that rocked the stock market. we're going to talk to a world renowned hacker who spent years in prison, we're going to ask him if there's anything that we with can do to stop this. >> a brain trust weighs on on the airplane delays brought on by bipartisan on capitol hill. really mattered... you suggested luxury car service

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thanks, jay. i want to say at the top that it appears that ap's twitter account has been hacked. so anything that was just sent out about any incident at the white house is obviously false. >> good, i thank you for that. i appreciate that and i can say that the president is fine. i was just with him. >> news organizations and financial institutions are on alert after the hacking this week of the ap's twitter feed. a fake tweet was sent out reporting that the white house had been attackeds. within seconds the dow jones average plunged about 150 points. kevin mitt nick is a former world renowned hacker. he spent five years for related crimes. he is on the other side of the

table as a computer analyst. let's start on the other side. how are these hackers able to do it. walk us through the mcs. >> there are several ways wu but what i expect here is they actually did what we call a fishing attack. so the attackers sent e-mails to some people at the news organizations, probably looking like it came from twitter, like there could have been something in the e-mail that said there's been a problem with your account or some sort of excuse then they include a hyper link. so when the victim clicks a hyper link it goes to what appears to be a twitter long in page but it's really not twitter, it's the attacker. once the victim puts in the user name and password, it sends tight the attacker. this technique is called social engineering an fishing which has been around forever. >> today we learn that living social site was also hacked, the

data of more than 50 million living social accounts, that data had has been compromised. the company started notifying customers yesterday. how is it that we seem to be more vulnerable now than ever to cyber criminals. >> unfortunately the hackers are aherd of the cyber community so we have lots of innovative companies out there that come up with products and services to try to help private and public sector communities mitigate the attacks but the attackers seem to be ahead of the game. now the attack on the social network is most likely different than what happened with the news agencies and twitter. that probably happened through some ex-ploation in the flaw of the internet facing web application. that is a come man way that hackers break into business networks. >> now conditioned are we at this point, how conditioned are we to accept as true what we see on our phone or computer screen that seems to be from a reliable

source? well, you know, it's kind of difficult because if you receive an e-mail and you don't know how to check that e-mail to determine the authenticity, then, you know, then it could be a problem. one thing you might want to do is if you click on a hyper link and it goes to a see cure site with the padlock, you could clickton padlock and bring down the certificate to i ensure that it's signed by anentity that you trust. but in the twitter hacks, what twitter can do to help the internet community at large is enable to factor awe then occasion. this is where you not only need your user name an password to log in, but when you attempt to log in twitter may send a texas message to your phone and with a secret code and you have to put in that secret code to enter your account. gmail has done this a yearing a.

you can enable two step factor awe then occasion. this is going to be the rule rather than the exception three, five years down the road where most internet sites out there require two fact awe then occasion rather than now it's putting in a user name and boss bard. >> former hacker, kevin mitt nick. always appreciate your insight. >> thanks, craig. nice to be on your show. so than o'brien will be performing at the white house dinner. we learned today that he will be doing something that no other entertainer at the event has ever done. we'll tell you what that is next. the humble back seat. we believe it can be the most valuable real estate on earth. ♪ that's why we designed our newest subaru from the back seat forward.

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historical picture, showing all five living presidents at the dedication of president bush's library. if you recall earlier this month he got a brand new handle after stooech cobar signed him up. now he tweets at from at bill clinton. jill kelly was seen in washington last night. kelly attended the time people party. he told the washington post she's heading back to tampa and will not be attending the dinner tonight. we've also heard that conan o'brien will be the first comedian ever to donate the 10,000 dollars compensation package to the charity of choice. that will be announced at the dinner tonight. and if you can't get a ticket, please do join me, 9:00 eastern complete coverage of the white

house correspondents dinner tonight. we'll be with you from 9:00 until 11:00. when we come back here we continue to follow the breaking news out of ms in the ricin case. plus we leaf is on the way for travelers but what about the other programs hurt by the sequester that congress doesn't seem to care too much about. u our brain trust will weigh in on that. if you think running a restaurant is hard, try running four. fortunately we've got ink. it gives us 5x the rewards on our internet, phone charges and cable, plus at office supply stores. rewards we put right back into our business. this is the only thing we've ever wanted to do and ink helps us do it. make your mark with ink from chase.

we've got some breaking news today in mississippi where fed rald agents have arrested and charged a suspect with the case of ricin laced letters that were sent to the white house and capitol hill. fbi took james dutschke into custody earlier this morning. they are charging with him with attempting to use a biological weapon. >> here's a look at other top

story. new developments in north korea. kenneth bay, an american has been detained there. now they're trying him in their supreme court. not exactly revealing what the charges are but they are accusing him of plotting to overthrow north korea's ou leadership. >> the planes were grounded in january, battery malfunctions caused two planes to catch fire that that glitch has been fixed. an ethiopian plane company is the first to put the plane back in the zie. >> look at that. that's a big alligator. there was a big hallup in the golf classic in louisiana and that's why, an enormous alligator wandered out on the the pga event. not sure what the guy on the golf cart is doing. but the alligator made it back

home to his home safely. >> president obama speculated as to why congress was able to move quickly to end the sequester cuts at air traffic control towers across the country. >> this week the sequester hurts travels who were stuck in airports and own planes an are frustrated by it. the members of congress who insisted on these cuts finally realized that apply to them too. >> the brain trust is here on a saturday. angela rooi, former executive director of the black caucus, perry bacon jr., political editor and msnbc contributor and robert costa, all of them here, all of them looking for a ticket to the afterparty. we'll talk about that in a moment. maybe we can hook the brain trust up with a ticket. so again for folks who may not

tune in every week. this is where we talk for a few minutes and at the end of the conversation we crown someone the biggest brain and they get 60 seconds to ramble on about what they so choose. let's start with the sequester stuff because i was stuck on a tarmac at laguardia yesterday. the plane was delayed 30 minutes. the pilot has the audacity to say we are 26th in line for departure. but here's the thing. isn't it amazing how fast congress with move to enact some legislation when certain folks seem to be involved. >> absolutely. there's a two thirds vote required. you got more than a two thirds vote on the sequester just from the house side. there's no better interest than self-interest. but there are a lot of other frustrated americans besides the 3 f 535 great people on the

hill, including you. >> i sat there and said, this is bad but i can acknowledge it might be bad but not as bad as some other follow,ings are feeling it. what does this tell us about our system? i was struck, not the fact that it happened because i think we all knew that people who are frustrated, frus straited flyers seem to cry loud by but the speed at which it happened. >> i wasn't surprised by the speed was unusual. low income americans an federal workers are the people that are suffer rg from the sequester. people who have a lot of money to fry fly, people who are flying lick members of congress, the members care, the people who call on the phone, the donors care. there you have a quick fix. >> robert costa, we've got the new york times editorial that i came across this morning. i'm going to share it. i'm certain that you read it but for folks who may not have read

it, a single senator or a single president could have been pins. before a little political pain and said no but that would require courage, courage which like government responsibility is now in short supply. how jaded have folks become about the government's ability to do the right thing? i think a lot of people are unhappy both on the right an left but especially on the left because the president and democrats have been pushing for so long that if there was going to be a sequester replacement it would need to influid revenue and taxes and be part of the bargain. the white house saw the ground. the sequester is going to stumble to get full replace. as perry mentioned a lot of the groups that had cuts are struggling to find replacements but why the do the air traffic controllers seem to get what they wanted. >> no senator democrat voted against it. it was a rare bipartisan triumph in washington, d.c. >> sure this is the band aid on

one cut here and we've solved this one cut but we're trying to solve sequester in mass. >> why not say, why not use this as an opportunity to say, no, this is going to be one of those rare instances where everyone suffers? because i don't think that the original deal was never supposed to happen this way. we talk often about how this president has this great view of people, they're human beings first, i can rasualize with them and negotiate with them. this backfired. we couldn't afford the sequester to begin with because there are working families relying on the money. i have teacher that e-mailed me about being furloughed. this was really going to hurt a lot of families. they couldn't afford to lose the one payday a week. >> military hospitals, the civilians there, mott r hospital is a big support as well. you'll see small little carve

out of republicans an democrats don't want to cut. this is not the last thing here. >> is this a employ to bring pressure to bear on the republicans in congress to end the sequester. >> i think the white house would love to have a sequester replacement but the secret on capitol hill is the republicans aren't eager to replace the sequester. when they go home cotheir districts and the states they're cheered on the spending cuts. you're not going to see republicans scrambling to try to replace everything. >> perhaps it hasn't hurt the economy on a macro level but on a microlevel what do they say to those folks. >> government is getting too big. you have to be forced to cut with the sequester. most republicans would be the first to admit the sequester is a messy cut but they like it's a cut because they don't think washington is cutting enough. >> we cut $85 billion of funding. something you cared about was going to be affected. every time there was a cut the republicans say he could have

changed the money over here ore over there. the government is not full of 80 build to waste all the time. >> what's striking to me about this parr cuas well, i guess at some point earlier in the week, the week before, someone was like i don't think we're going to have enough money to pay all of the air traffic controllers. we're going to have flight delays. was this not something that folks were banking on. >> ray lahood talked about it in february in great deal. members of congress were surprises only if they were not listening to him. >> why were they not surprise. >> it becomes a surprise when the people feel it. they've actually sat through what sequester feels like. i know no that my flight is goington delayed. i know now that the local hiv aides prevention program in my community is goington cut. >> what does it say about us as people? >> we're reactive. >> this is the straw that broke the camel's back. >> that's the beginning. >> people think congress is

fighting all the time and they can't tell what matters and what doesn't. we cover it like it's a big argument about stuff that doesn't matter but they can see it does matter. >> the flight traffic controller were playing some politics on their own. they didn't want the cuts that everyone else was going through. i think they were manipulating the process a little bit pushing to have the cut replaced. >> let's take a quick break. faerg a backlash, botton's muslim community has denounced and distanced itself from the suspects in the bombing. this is msnbc, the place for politics. [ phil ] when you have joint pain and stiffness...

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alleged background of the bombers. the story says quote, u.s. muslims are watching closely as the probe into the boston bombings unfolds fearing a backlash like the/11 if an islamist lipg is to the attack. the bombers were muslims. the boston area muslims are finding new tensions there since the bombings. quote as it became clear that the brothers suspected of the attack were muslim, many muslims sensed a backlash toward their faith. why is there this tendency in the country to single out whole groups for the acts of a few? i think that's the way we react in fear. anytime something comes up -- we saw this right after 9/is. we don't know the exact answer. so it's easier to say we'll label this whole cad reof people

but that's now how it place out at all. we entered into a war with the wrong country after 9/11 to address our fear. when we react in fear we have terrible policy decisions that we make. >> have you been at all struck or surprised that the response by some this time around has been what it has been with regards to the muslim community. >> it has been much less than after 9/11, much less backlash. there's been a marked improve nmt the country to tell you how much we've changed in the past ten years. on capitol hill, people seem to be ice lath these two individuals as different from the broader imlamb community. so far so good. i'm not no boston but here in washington not much impact at all. >> the people using it as part of an argument to stop immigration reform, they were

against it in the beginning. >> yes. chuck grassly, rand paul and then marco rieb owe immediately spoke up, no we're going to keep moving on this. they pretty much so shouted the down ward quickly. >> the robert, the muslim community in boston, they've been offering prayers and condo sense r lenses, the mayor and the governor visited a mosque in rocks bury. efforts like that how far do those things go in defusing any tensions. >> they go very far. i think perry is right we've come along way since 9/11. i haven't seen the backlash toward the muslim community. you don't see it on a national scale. i think a lot of people are raising questions about not the muslim faith but the national security, the fbi what were they

doing with their ter rer watch list. >> it always seems to be the questions that are asked in the wake of something like that, who knew what and when did they know it. >> we've had the conversation for the past week, week and a half. i don't know how much we will ever be able to do to stop someone who is hell bent on breaking havoc and terror in major metropolitan in this country. >> particularly in a marathon situation, everyone has a backpack at a marathon. >> 26 miles. >> that's really hard. airplane security is little easier to do on some level like this. mass killings are very hard to prevent. we haven't had a mass killings since 9/11 but some security measures are working. >> are we starting to see the plitty zags of boston yet. >> i think you're seeing some fragments here and there on immigration. i this your point is right.

those who were opposing immigration reform before boston, they were always opposed to immigration reform. boston is not driving that. >> what bt a marco rubio, he was on a radio show and talked about whether we should restrict stud visas of people who are of muslim faith. we may have been pushing it but that's sody viszive and int doesn't move the country forward. in 2007 there was a study that came out from the triangle center for homeland security, when they talked about muslim securities are reporting terrorism. it flies in a point like that. >> where are we on immigration right now? where are we on the bill? is this thing going to happen or is this going to be other legislative failure. >> they think it might be 70 votes in the senator.

that said, house republicans talking about breaking up the bill and putting it in parts, that's not usually the way things go faster. so the white house is very weary of what happens in the house. >> the key thing to watch is how the republicans handle the path to legalization. if the house backs away from the path to visit ship, i don't think it happens. can they agree to some parts, especially the key part to the senator bill. >> coming up, one of these fine folks will be dubbed today's biggest brain. we give them f 0 second of air time. we'll talk about that. also a quick reminder for those of you looking for saturday night plans. no need for a tux, no need for a fancy dress. i'll be here with you at 9:00 hosting the special coverage of the dinner. president obama will be unleashing his inner comedian. he's not up for reelection so

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as advertised, this is the part to have program where we let one of our brain trust guests have a moment. time now to crown the biggest brain. this is why that person is the biggest brain today. because she sited a study, she sited a study. neither one of you guys had a study. then this is what i most enjoyed. when you posed a question, you took my job -- >> i'm sorry. >> after three hours it was kind of refreshing. he was let's talk about marco rubio. >> it was a hard question, too. we were looking around and stum kbling. >> perry and robert costa fashion, they didn't answer the question. angela rye is our biggest brain. we don't have the brain trophy but you get your 60 minutes. >> 60 seconds. >> 60 seconds. sorry. there's your camera, have it at it.

>> the battle to ensure the streng theng of immigration policy is not a latino issue. it's a american issue. when history demonstrates we don't start right. we have the wherewithal to end right. immigration is a american issue because the children have provided us with answers. immigration is an american issue because our economy depends on it. immigration is an american issue because our borders an ports of entry must be protected. for these reasons and so many more, immigration is more than a policy challenge. it's much more than a political challenge just as it has in the past, immigration will challenge the very ideals we sing about in your national anthem. it will challenge our allegiance to the american fly. it will challenge how we defined american, demand that we stretch, grow and evolve to ensure that american continues to apply for all that want a

better life. my desire is to see us continue to grow no diversity so we aren't worried object e reflecting the faces of american wu rather the faces, the ideals and the people reflect the world. it is patriotic for us, we the people to ensure that solutions to our growing immigration challenges are nothing short of comprehensive. >> angela rye, that was pretty good. you have done this before. >> i have not. >> you do very pel. congratulations. you did much better than these two. kidding. >> team work. >> how would you characterize the immigration debate so far and based on the legislation that had been introduced how would you characterize it. >> first, it's very clear that both claim bers have been working diligently for a long time. i'm hopeful that this is the one thing that will be a part of the president's legacy because gun control has not been it and i'm hopeful that it's not broke.

up in pieces. >> does it have to consider a path to citizenship rchl absolutely. >> perhaps from your own personal perspective it does. but we're a divided government. he said he will break up the bill and he's going to try to do e verify and border security alone. maybe in a divided government, that's the most you can get. >> let's end on with a high noting with something we can all agree on. the white house correspondents dinner. all of you are going to either the dinner anor one of the parties. i've been struck by some of the backlash, if you will. dana milbank was here biting his tongue. i'm sure you read the piece he wrote. my friend and mentor tom bro kau has said the correspondent's dinner has become a joke in some respects. one of the things i loved about bro cue's criticism, it was the

quality of the celebrity. lindsay lohan but then holds up george cloo any and some of the other aerks litters. has the dinner itself become, has it become a little outdated. >> perhaps. they are having a party there with the nation so it's a bart e event. it's my first time. >> national review is having dinner with -- >> the nation. we can share some drinks. >> that's going to be an interesting party. >> from the colleagues i've heard aloft of the white house correspondents can't go themselves. the news organization takes seats away from roert es and gives them to celebrities. i know reporters are not the most -- >> we've got margs in boston. >> i love managers in boston, they can go. >> is this your first year? this is my first year doing anything correspondent related.

i'm excited. at least maybe that will help inside the beltway with all of the banter and the fights. >> there are few things that bring us together, food, music and generally alcohol or sports depend depending on the city you're in. one of the criticisms is the hundred,000 dollars raised inship u scholarships because if they were serious they could probably generate a lot more than that. congratulations, biggest brain. that was better than a cookie. always a pressure. thank you so much. thanks to you as well for spending a good chunk of your saturday afternoon with us. again i'll be back live from washington, d.c. tonight. i will not be at the dinner but i will be in a tux see do for our special coverage of the white house dinner, president obama's and chance to take aim at the press core. conan o'brien will be there.

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